In the States (Hawaii NOT excluded of course, but it is not part of the mainland), employers must continue your paycheck. I think anyway, don;t hold me to that. There may be some exemptions that I'm unaware of.

Jury duty is not only a "duty", it's interesting and fun. If you're really adverse to serving, you might get lucky and not even get picked out of the pool. Or...you may get picked for a case and the Defendant will plead before it goes to trial. You could even get picked for a civil case - they can be interesting too. Sometimes not getting picked puts you back into the pool, but many people called for jury duty never even serve. If you're concerned about the Holiday, don;t worry.....Governments take the Holiday off, and usually several days before and after.

My profession is federal law enforcement and you might think I wouldn;t like jury duty because it would be boring or something. Not so. I enjoy it. My best duty ever was serving on the Grand Jury (NM State) 2 years ago for 3 months. I loved it!

When I was in San Diego, I served on a civil case. Short story: A bicycle rider was attacked in the street by a dog. He beat the dog with the bicycle pump. The dog's owner came out and a fight started. THe owner wanted compensation for injuries to his dog and some other stuff. We found for the bike rider in this case.

If you never served before, I recommend *hoping* you'll get picked. My guess is you'll have fond memories of it later on down the road.